_________________These shitbirds should pay for their own elections if they aren't going to be obligated by any democratic pretense. - MumblesDon't you know that vegan meat is the gateway drug to chicken addiction? Because GMO and trans-fats. - kaerlighed

He does seem totally rad! For anyone waiting to click the link, theres a song. And its pretty awesome. JoPa, can you explain the situation a bit? I'm reading on both sites linked to, but I'm still confused.

Well, I wasn't super aware of this case, but it appears Mr. Halliday was allegedly involved in releasing mink from a fur farm in the state of Utah. Rather than being charged normally and going through the court system normally, he was indicted by a grand jury, which is kind of an investigatory court, rather than the normal type of criminal (or other) court where proceedings generally begin once evidence has already been gathered by the prosecution and produced to the defense, and then they fight it out from there. In a grand jury, the purpose, technically, is to ascertain if there's enough evidence to proceed to trial.

The problem is that defendants in grand juries don't have the same protections as they would in regular court, so while grand juries are supposed to ensure that people aren't getting dragged into trial court when there is insufficient cause, in reality, they are kind of a rights vacuum, where they can be compelled to testify without a lawyer (and charged with contempt if they refuse, like Jordan Halliday), and where the judge can declare that the due process rights (which are supposed to ensure fair trial, etc.) granted to them by the fifth and sixth amendments do not apply.

In this case, Jordan Halliday refused to testify before the grand jury he was called to, and he was therefore convicted of contempt of court and was just sentenced to 10 months' imprisonment as a result.

In sum, it's complete and utter bullshiitake.

_________________These shitbirds should pay for their own elections if they aren't going to be obligated by any democratic pretense. - MumblesDon't you know that vegan meat is the gateway drug to chicken addiction? Because GMO and trans-fats. - kaerlighed